The Kirkus Prize is one of the richest literary awards in the world, with a prize of $50,000 bestowed annually to authors of fiction, nonfiction and young readers’ literature. It was created to celebrate the 81 years of discerning, thoughtful criticism Kirkus Reviews has contributed to both the publishing industry and readers at large. Books that earned the Kirkus Star with publication dates between November 1, 2015, and October 31, 2016 (see FAQ for exceptions), are automatically nominated for the 2016 Kirkus Prize, and the winners will be selected on November 3, 2016, by an esteemed panel composed of nationally respected writers and highly regarded booksellers, librarians and Kirkus critics.

"This evocative book could be paired to nice effect with Elisha Cooper's sunny Country Fair (1997). (Picture book. 3-8)"

Crews (Shortcut, 1992, etc.) uses, to great effect, the contrast of the night sky and the gaudy lights of typical fair amusements in his picture book of very few words but very kinetic images.
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"Crews brings to each page his elemental, suggestive brushwork: ketchup that is thick and rich and hard to shake out of the bottle, water that is splashy and cold. (Picture book. 5+)"

Shannon (April Showers, 1995, etc.) has created an alphabet book that demands of readers imaginative, often arbitrary leaps, from what is to what will be. ``B is for eggs—tomorrow's BIRDS'' and ``R is for grapes—tomorrow's RAISINS.'' Wheat to flour, clay to pot, caterpillar to moth: Most of the letter play will spark recognition, but the associations of a few are fairly oblique for ABC readers.
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"Of most appeal is Crew's innovative way with these simple, powerful graphics in an arresting (some might even say dissonant) range of colors. (Picture book. 3-7)"

A wooden box—an empty cube—makes a fine receptacle for items signifying, one by one, the months of the year, whose names accumulate in the left-hand margin as the objects—``a red foil heart, a robin's feather, a purple eggshell,'' etc., in hand- tinted b&w photos combined for a collage-like effect—are introduced and then mount up in the box.
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In a return to Bigmama's (1991) small Florida community for a second story based on Crews's childhood memories, a group of children walking through a narrow railroad cut have to dive into the brambles when an unexpected train rockets past.
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In the style of Giganti and Crews's How Many Snails? (1989), 11 opportunities for children to begin to grasp the concept of multiplication—or simply to count items that may mount into the 50s.
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Beginning with the ride on the old Southern Railway car ("colored" says the sign on the wall), the sights, sounds, and warm delights of a summer visit to Grandma in Crews's own childhood—a three-day trip from somewhere up north.
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"Much of this, however, approaches the here-and-now norm—executed with greater flair."

The colors are muted, grayed—but that's not the only way Crews' new book differs from Freight Train, Truck, etc. For one thing, it's mostly an album of types of ships found in a harbor, each precisely rendered.
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"All have an immediate impact, but the best are not immediately exhausted."

Though this hasn't the excitement, the page-to-page motion, or the vibrant originality of Freight Train, Trucks, and Rain, Crews' projection of city and country night scenes has its own rhythm and mood as a picture-poem on the theme of lights at night.
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Mr. Crews made an auspicious entrance with We Read: A to Z, which did things with the alphabet that nobody'd done before; this does the same things with numbers that everybody's done before, and better.
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